New Study Finds That Brazil Is the Leading Crack-Cocaine Market

The world might be a giant asylum of soul-sucking gutter junkies fighting for their next meal on the excruciating edge of a devil-sharp machete, as new research pinpoints crack-cocaine usage in the millions, with Brazil the world’s leading a speed-freak society.

According to a recent study conducted by the Federal University of Sao Paulo, about six million adult Brazilians have tried cocaine products, as have nearly 442,000 of the country’s young people.

Study leader Ronaldo Laranjeira says more Brazilians are using crack cocaine than any other population in the world: “No other country has one million crack users currently.”

Shockingly, one in 100 adults in Brazil have reportedly used crack cocaine over the course of the last year. The country is reportedly just behind the United States in total cocaine consumption, with nearly three million users, while the U.S. is responsible for just over four million.

However, when it comes to the consumption of things like crack, merla (a combination of crack and marijuana) or oxi, the extremely inexpensive and highly addictive hallucinogenic, Brazilians are the frontrunners, with two million users.

The study data was collected using a sample of 4,600 people age 14 and up, in 149 cities across Brazil, as well as additional information from the World Health Organization that indicates Brazil is the leading nation for the use of synthetic drugs.

Last year, the Brazilian government signed a $2.2 billion proposal to assist in the prevention, care and repression of the drug, after Health Minister Alexandre Padilha announced that Brazil was staring into the eyes of “a crack epidemic.”

Usage of the drug has grown quite commonplace—and cheap. “In the past, cocaine was the champagne of drugs,” Laranjeira said. “Today, it’s the beer.”